Thursday Evening Much Better Than Last Weekend

[rps]

Over Memorial Day Weekend, I struggled. I caught one keeper walleye on Saturday and two early bass, both small. Sunday I had an ok topwater morning - but they were small and included only one keeper. Monday was one of those swat and miss days on top.

This evening I went out from 5:00 to dark. Shortly after 6:00 I found a topwater pattern.I was throwing a Norman Top Dollar and found the fish tight to chunk rock outside bend banks that were in the shade. Most strikes came on the first move after letting the rings flatten. I put 19 in the boat, had a dozen more on for varying lengths of time, and had more than a few blowups. Four of the boated fish were keepers up to 18 inches. 2 or 3 of the lost fish were definite keepers.

[Bill Babler]

Sounds like you had a wonderful evening. Was wondering if the late bite was going to come on. Good to hear it has for the one day anyway.

Liked your rock pattern. Pretty exciting to just throw it up along the shoreline and get a blowup. Really don't happen here that often.

Great Report

[rps]

You know I was surprised to find the fish where I found them. TR has forced me to learn to routinely throw baits from 40+ feet of water into a mere 20 feet of water - or, if I am in 20 feet of water, to turn and throw away from the bank.

What happened last night: I was in 40+ feet of water throwing a jig head rigged plastic craw. I was throwing to minor points on a chunk rock bank transition. I threw too far and put the bait a couple of feet from the bank. I got hit on the initial fall. A bit later I again landed the bait tight to shore and was hit again. My pea brain said, "Hey, they are doing something odd! They are tight to shore cover." Anyone who has read my posts knows I use any excuse to start fishing on top. I put down the jig rod and pulled my topwater rod out. I put on the Top Dollar because it is a popper that walks.

Do I expect the pattern to hold? On TR, home of the 40 FOW shallow fish? Nah. But it was fun, and reminded me of other lakes for a while.

[Tfsh4bass]

You know I was surprised to find the fish where I found them. TR has forced me to learn to routinely throw baits from 40+ feet of water into a mere 20 feet of water - or, if I am in 20 feet of water, to turn and throw away from the bank.

What happened last night: I was in 40+ feet of water throwing a jig head rigged plastic craw. I was throwing to minor points on a chunk rock bank transition. I threw too far and put the bait a couple of feet from the bank. I got hit on the initial fall. A bit later I again landed the bait tight to shore and was hit again. My pea brain said, "Hey, they are doing something odd! They are tight to shore cover." Anyone who has read my posts knows I use any excuse to start fishing on top. I put down the jig rod and pulled my topwater rod out. I put on the Top Dollar because it is a popper that walks.

Do I expect the pattern to hold? On TR, home of the 40 FOW shallow fish? Nah. But it was fun, and reminded me of other lakes for a while.

If the water is in the bushes there will be fish up shallow on Table Rock even in the clear water...doesn't matter the time of year IMO. Also, it is post-spawn and they are feeding up pretty good right now and there is a ton of bait up shallow. I fished yesterday up around the dam and with a very light wind and mostly high skies I caught 22 bass with 13 keepers ranging from 2.5-4lbs in 5hrs of fishing...never had the boat deeper than 16ft and caught a majority of my fish in less than 5ft on topwaters and spinnerbaits. I will admit though I am stubborn and always fish shallow whether I get 5 bites or 35 bites. I just took 1 pic yesterday because all I had was my stupid cell phone.